Kyle Mulka's Blog

Here’s an interesting blog post about a girl Dating an Apple Developer. I hope my girlfriend/wife will be as understanding when I turn into a hardcore developer if I’m not already.

Respecting The Programmer

So, I guess the name for the technology which Goolgle Maps, Google Suggest, Gmail, etc uses is called Ajax. Hmm… interesting.

The point of using Ajax to make web applications is to make them faster, and more snappy. When you use Ajax, you don’t have to reload the webpage to do a lot of things, and processing can be done on the client side.

This makes them more like desktop applications. The whole trend of web applications now is to make them seem more like native applications. You don’t have to “download” them, they just work when you go to the site.

On a side note, I think JavaScript is a really bad language for writing applications in. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it was never meant for it. Rather, it was meant for little popup boxes and slightly dynamic pages. Of course, you can completely adjust the content of pages dynamically, but still, it’s pretty bad. Another reason it is bad is because all the various browsers don’t implement it the same way, so the developer(s) end up testing in several different browsers which is really annoying. There has to be a better way.

Maybe that way is Java, which actually isn’t related to Javascript at all. It is more of a real programming language like C++v except for the fact that it is not compiled to a natie application, it is compiled to bytecode which requires a Java Virtual Machine to run. However, this means it can run on pretty much any operating system that is used today.

Here’s some related links:

JSON-RPC-Java – JavaScript to Java remote communication
DWR – Java library
Ajax Wiki

Looks like they’ve started construction on the Walgreen Drama Center on North Campus. Sweet! Maybe North Campus will be more of a hot spot now, instead of a baren wasteland.

Do you think I should buy a Roomba? We currently have no vacuum, and I think it would be really cool if it worked.

We played around with these things in my first semester Engineering 100 class at the University of Michigan. We basically had to reverse engineer it… draw up detailed diagrams, explained its logic, etc. It was actually pretty nifty. The funny thing about that class is that the projects we were doing actually were being implemented. For example, a GPS Tracking System for the UofM Busses, a Social Networking Website, Wireless Internet Connections, etc.

Matt introduced me to Model View Controller, and it looks promising. In fact, it looks like the exact design pattern we have been trying to do from the begining of Mschedule. (after he joined that is) Basically, the main goal is to separate the application logic from the display logic. This allows for complete change of display without changing the back end. It also allows the application logic to be cleaner without all the html gunk or whatever you are outputing. Below is a list of links, basically for my own reference having to do with MVC as it is called.

php.MVC
J2EE MVC
Web-Tier MVC Java
Design Patters
Do you need MVC?
Ruby on Rails
PHP MVC Frameworks
Phrame
Struts

There are several goals I have relating to this online journal. One of them is to get people to read it, even if just a little bit here and there. I hope to post links to some good stuff on the web, and short little posts about my experiences. If I don’t find it interesting, you probably won’t, so I won’t post it. (like its really hot out, I sweat a lot, or I played frisbee again today) Those things should be kept to one’s self. But, things other people might find funny, interesting, or good to know, I will post. For example, people might want to know that the burito’s at Qdoba are good, right?

Ok, I lied. Maybe I will post a few personal things that aren’t that interesting, but only once, and I’ll try to keep it short.

After a month of development, the project Chris and I have been working on is almost ready for public viewing. Yey! More details to come. Maybe I’ll even give you the link if you ask nicely.

Went to Qdoba today with the other intern, Chris. The chicken burito was better than Big Ten Burito. Qudos… (get it? It’s spelled like Qdoba…. ok, nm, Im just weird)

So, I had this problem with Firefox. It was really weird. When I tried to visit a secure site, it would pop up a thing saying that SSL was disabled… but it WASN’T as far as I could tell from the options box and all available menus.

I tried reinstalling it, but apparently it kept my settings.

To fix it I created a new profile and used that by running “firefox.exe -profilemanager” in the Start->Run window thingy.

Grr… that was annoying to have to use IE without my precious tabs and such. I’m glad that’s over.